The present invention is directed to using etching in combination with other processing techniques to facilitate alignment of a die in a system. More particularly, the present invention is directed to singulating dies from a wafer, the resultant singulated die having at least one precise edge and/or to creating channels for aligning optics block on a planar system and alignment features of the optics block to mate with the channels.
Vertical alignment of die features on a wafer level is known. Once the dies are singulated from the wafer, the die itself may have a plurality of aligned features. However, it is often desirable to incorporate the die into a planar system or other system for which the vertical alignment on the wafer level is not efficient.
Separating dies from wafers using a dicing saw can be accurate, but often results in chipping. The accuracy that can be achieved with dicing is around ±10 microns at best, and is more typically ±25 microns. Dies could be separated from a wafer by etching all the way through the wafer, but dry etching takes a long time and wet etching has characteristic angles which are often undesirable.
Further, when aligning optics block or other dies on a bench, rather than vertically as can be performed on a wafer level, there is still a need for alignment features to be accurately provided on both the bench and the die. This is also true for other systems that are not readily amenable to vertical integration, e.g., fibers in a housing.
The present invention is directed to using etching in conjunction with other techniques to overcome at least one of the above problems.
These and other objects of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating the preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.